How will Nigeria Repay all these Loans?

“Two days ago, Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari commenced his sixth year in office. He had spent the most disappointing five years in charge. But in a tweet three days earlier, presidential spokesman Femi Adesina, again proclaiming himself a “Buharist,” described his principal as leading Nigeria “well.”

Nonetheless, the spokesman may have been preparing the ground for Buhari’s resumption of his inexorable borrowing journey: within 48 hours, Buhari was at the National Assembly with a new external loan request of $5.513bn. Remember: in early March, just three months ago, the Senate approved for him a massive loan request of $22.79bn; and in April, an N850bn domestic loan request.  There have been several others.

Every nation borrows, of course. But not every nation borrows with a kleptocracy mindset. That is what Buhari’s borrowing is: having arrived without a plan to produce or create or even inspire, he borrows to convey a sense of motion, not movement; of activity rather than action.

Remember: the government explained three months ago that $500m of the $29.96bn it was borrowing was to upgrade the nation’s “broadcasting infrastructure” and elevate the Nigerian Television Authority to the standard of CNN. CNN is privately-owned. This explains why, in the past five years, there has been far more Shakespearean sound and fury about transparency in governance, but far more corruption.  Is the objective to accomplish goals and serve the people?  If so, nepotism ought to embarrass the Buhari government, as would the kind of incestuous sycophancy in which paid appointees extol a ruler.” – Excerpts of an article by Sonala Olumhense in the Punch Newspaper.